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Main Authors: Brändén, Petter, Leite, Leonardo Saud Maia
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.06595
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author Brändén, Petter
Leite, Leonardo Saud Maia
author_facet Brändén, Petter
Leite, Leonardo Saud Maia
contents We prove that any lower unitriangular and totally nonnegative matrix gives rise to a family of polynomials with only real zeros. This has consequences for problems in several areas of mathematics. We use it to develop a general theory for chain enumeration in posets and zeros of chain polynomials. The results obtained extend and unify results of the first author, Brenti, Welker and Athanasiadis. In the process we define a notion of $h$-vectors for a large class of posets which generalize the notions of $h$-vectors associated to simplicial and cubical complexes. A consequence of our methods is a characterization of the convex hull of all characteristic polynomials of hyperplane arrangements of fixed dimension and over a fixed finite field. This may be seen as a refinement of the Critical Problem of Crapo and Rota. We also use the methods developed to answer an open problem posed by Forgács and Tran on the real-rootedness of polynomials arising from certain bivariate rational functions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2412_06595
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Totally nonnegative matrices, chain enumeration and zeros of polynomials
Brändén, Petter
Leite, Leonardo Saud Maia
Combinatorics
We prove that any lower unitriangular and totally nonnegative matrix gives rise to a family of polynomials with only real zeros. This has consequences for problems in several areas of mathematics. We use it to develop a general theory for chain enumeration in posets and zeros of chain polynomials. The results obtained extend and unify results of the first author, Brenti, Welker and Athanasiadis. In the process we define a notion of $h$-vectors for a large class of posets which generalize the notions of $h$-vectors associated to simplicial and cubical complexes. A consequence of our methods is a characterization of the convex hull of all characteristic polynomials of hyperplane arrangements of fixed dimension and over a fixed finite field. This may be seen as a refinement of the Critical Problem of Crapo and Rota. We also use the methods developed to answer an open problem posed by Forgács and Tran on the real-rootedness of polynomials arising from certain bivariate rational functions.
title Totally nonnegative matrices, chain enumeration and zeros of polynomials
topic Combinatorics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.06595